Our first art project

The first art project of the year was decorating our school boxes. One of the things I got on clearance at Target was magnetized school boxes that were able to be colored in. It was a perfect way to save money, personalize the school items and have a simple art project. I picked up a pack of permanent markers at Pat Catan's(for the second art project) and the kids were allowed to color them any way they wanted to. Even Becca got in on the action! She wanted to be like the big kids, so I got her a few school supplies as well and that included a school box. She had a lot of fun coloring, but she was using washable markers! :D

The schoolyear has begun!

One of the perks of being a homeschool family is the fact that we can start school pretty much whenever we want to! Since we always vacation over the week of Labor Day, we didn't get started until yesterday. This year I have a 1st grader and and 3rd grader. I am excited to see what 3rd grade brings! There are a lot of changes in the curriculum this year. We have testing in every subject instead of just having simple "readers" for things like Science, Social Studies & health. Also, Alaina has some big changes coming for her in 1st grade! She is going to be doing spelling tests and independent studies. She hasn't had to do those before!

Anyways, our first day went really smoothly. It always feels good to have a great start to the schoolyear. I am a realistic parent/teacher, though, and realize that tougher days are ahead. School is school no matter where the classroom is. There are days when kids just don't want to do the work. But, I am choosing to be positive. I am making some changes to my teaching. I have been researching some different homeschool methods and I think that the improvements will be good ones for both me AND the children!

Another great sidenote is the fact that we went to Target yesterday and got ALL of our school supplies on clearance! LOVE IT! I got filler paper for $.18, rulers for $.12, composition notebooks for $.25, and much much more!

Becca's Funny for the Day!

The weather was amazing today, so we had a playdate with some friends. We were at the park near our house. It was great!

About halfway through our day Becca told me she needed to go potty and we had to trudge across the parking lot to get to the port a pot. So, off we go....

Laying the the middle of the parking lot was an old pop can that had been run over and smashed flat. Honestly, I didn't even notice it! Suddenly, Rebecca points to the can and says to me "Ewww...a dead can! Gross!" It made me burst out laughing! She was so serious!

Not quite sure how a can ends up dead in a parking lot, but hey, whatever!

Dad vs. Poodle

I love when you have a story that makes you laugh so hard you actually tear up!

Many of you don't know my husband or what he looks like, but I will tell you that he has SUPER curly hair. It is extremely tight curls, too! His hair is also dark in color.

So yesterday we were at the soccer field watching Alaina's soccer practice. The other two girls saw a dog a few yards away from us and asked if they could pet him. I told them to get permission from the owner so they did. This particular dog was a brown full size poodle. They had so much fun loving on that dog! A little while later Marvin arrives at the field after work and the kids come over to greet him. A friend of mine and myself were sitting there chatting when I heard Michaela tell her dad that his hair looks just like the dog! LOL! We all started cracking up! We tease him a lot about his curls, so this was just so amusing to us.

To make things even funnier my oldest went back over a few minutes later and was petting the dog again and telling the owner about how much their dog looked like my husband! She was pointing him out and making that poor couple look at him to compare. I am not sure if they were uncomfortable with it, but I can tell you that we got the biggest laugh out of that!

I will never look at a poodle the same way again!

Punishment.....someone's gotta do it!!

So, today was a trying day to say the least. When I woke up this morning, I had a message on my answering machine telling me that my two oldest children decided to sneak out of their bedroom windows and climb out onto the roof! GAH!!! I was upset and relieved all at the same time!

I called Marvin and told him what had happened and we came to the mutual decision that they were both going to have to have a spankin'.

Now, I realize that some are against this kind of punishment, but we feel that as long as they know and understand their disobedience, then it is biblical to spank them. They had already been warned one other time about opening the screens and going out onto this particular part of the roof, so we knew that they understood what they had done wrong. Not only that but when I asked them about it, they wanted to know how I found out, LOL!

So, a little while ago, Marvin took the girls in one by one to our bedroom for their discipline "event". Michaela went first(which wasn't easy since she is a fighter when it comes to discipline) and then came Alaina. She knew what was coming after she saw Michaela come out in tears, so she was already a little pouty when she first walked in.

I was out in the office during this time. A minute after he called Alaina into the room, I didn't hear much of anything and Marvin came out just bursting with laughter. He actually had to leave the room so that Alaina didn't see him laughing during what was supposed to be a serious time. He told me that he was explaining the reason for the punishment and here is how the conversation went from there...

Alaina: I don't wanna get a spankin'.

Marvin: I know, it sucks, doesn't it?

Alaina:(arms crossed in her most serious voice) You suck! ( I want to add here that I don't even think she really even knows what that means!)

At that moment he started to giggle, so he had to leave the room!

Here is how the rest of the "event" went down...

Marvin(re-enters bedroom): You are going to get one spankin, so roll over and don't get your hands or feet in the way.

Alaina(immediately after spank, her hands reach around and grab her bottom): Owww!!! I should've worn more pantsies!!!!!

Now I know that most people wouldn't share punishment stories about their children, but this one was so funny! She actually was still laughing after she got spanked! She knew she had made a mistake, she knew she was receiving a punishment for said mistake, yet she was still able to get through it and know that her mommy and daddy still love her and want the best for her. She was able to make the best out of an unfortunate situation and that is why she makes my heart swell with love and pride! I love that girl!!!

"I Love You"

Wednesday Night is AWANA night in our town. The kids have AWANA from 6:30-8pm and my two oldest get to go. This is the one thing they do during the week that is away from Mom so it is a fun and special time for them. Well, they are big enough now that I can pull right up to the church doors and let them out and I don't have to take them inside to help them sign in.

So, this week we pulled up as usual and the kids got ready to get out of the van when my littlest one looks at them and says "Bye guys! I love you!!". It was so cute! She was so excited to wish them farewell and just make sure they knew she was thinking about them! It was a total Mom moment where I felt so proud and so much in love with that cute little girl!

I know that sisters go through rough patches but I sure hope that they end up being best of friends one day and can share their lives together!

Home Improvements

I love home improvements! I love the end result of them and I love that we are finally getting the house how we want it. What I do NOT love is the mess!!!! We have our entire dining room in our living room and front porch right now. ugh!!! We also have a mess in our kitchen because we were trying to get our new gas stove installed. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but we have no natural gas in our area so we had to run pipe lines from the kitchen, into the basement and then to the outside to be hooked up to a propane tank. It has been quite a job! Thankfully, my husband and my dad were able to get the stove hooked up and ready to go yesterday. Now we are just waiting for Wednesday to come so that the LP company can come and install the new tank.

The reason that our living/dining room is a mess is because we were refinishing the original hardwood floors in our house. We put the last coat on last night(it took us a week) and now we are finally ready to put things back together. I am super satisfied with the results and I am looking forward to seeing all of my things in their place and the shiny new floors underneath!

We have a few other small things that we plan on finishing in the near future as well. After 12 years we are finally getting new living room furniture! We have FINALLY picked out the sectional that we want so we will be putting that on order soon. We basically picked out the pieces we wanted and it is going to be a custom fit for our room! We are excited! Lastly, I found the PERFECT area rug at Lowe's so we are going to purchase that after the furniture finally gets here. Unfortunately, it will be about 12 weeks for the furniture to get here. Oh well, that will give us some time to pay down the balance!!!!

We are so thankful that we have been able to get these things done and we are really excited for the end results! Stay tuned for more photos!!!

Baby Fever

I am wondering if baby fever has ever hit you? Have you ever felt it so strongly that it almost takes over your senses and better judgment? I know that sometimes when it comes around that even though we know that it isn't a good time for a baby that we let our good sense go by the wayside on the hunt for that baby fix.

I can't really do that anymore. I can get baby fever, of course, but I can't fulfill it in a biological way. My hysterectomy with my last daughter took care of that for me! LOL! But this weekend I was at the home of one of my very best friends. She cannot have any of her own biological children, so she has been hoping to do a foster-to-adopt for a while now. Finally, after years of waiting and endless amounts of patience it has finally happened! She got to bring home a 2 day old little boy and he is just adorable! I couldn't wait to celebrate with her and meet her little one so I spent the better part of Saturday with her. I got to hold and snuggle and love on that little boy. I am now praying diligently that the adoption part goes through and that he is going to be her little boy forever. Don't get me wrong, I do feel for the little one and his mother, but the circumstances(which I will not go into) make me feel very strongly that my friend is the ultimate place for this little cutie pie!!!!

Now, this little(6 hour) visit put my baby fever into full swing! I wanted to just get a "baby fix" while I was there, but it really made me miss the days of my girls being so little and innocent. My husband and I have always wanted four children and we recently had our adult niece move away, so it has left a space in our home and our family for another. It made me want to run out and fill out every paper I could and take every class possible to hopefully get to bring home a little one of my own. However, I know that right now some of these things just aren't feasible for us. The red tape and the amounts of time required to be eligible for this are just not a good fit for us right now. Hopefully soon, but we will have to wait and see what God's plan is for us.

After all of this, it really makes me wonder why some people don't take this own discretion seriously with their own lives. Why do people have babies when they can't care for them? There are so many ways to prevent pregnancy and I just don't get it. There are so many babies out there who don't have parents who love them. There just aren't enough foster families to go around. It is really sad. So many of these "surprise" babies are just lack of responsibility.

I just thought that I would urge people who maybe are finished having their own children or maybe who can't have their own to consider looking into foster-to-adopt programs. It is a great option and there are many little ones who need love!

I am continuing to pray that one day the time will be right for us and that we will be properly prepared for that situation. I would love to give one of these babies a set of parents who love and care for them!

For everything there is a season

There are many times that I have to remind myself that there are season's to one's life. People come and go throughout your life that make an impact and then life moves on. I think I am at a place like that right now. It's funny because you just "know" it is time to continue on in your life. You don't feel that common bond anymore and it is just obvious. Maybe that is God whispering in your ear that it is in His timing and that you need to keep going. I am not sure. However, one thing I do know.....it is definitely time to start moving onward and upward. No more longing for things I used to have and start looking forward to what is ahead. I am excited about what life will bring my way and I am looking forward to experiencing it!

Hmmm.....Is 29 the new elderly?!

I love being in the car with my girls. They are sure to come up with something witty almost every trip somewhere.

Yesterday we were driving along and Michaela was asking questions about the way things used to look when I was a little girl. I was telling her that things were a little different back then. There are new roads and buildings now that weren't there before. She ponders this thought for a little while and then proceeds to ask me a doozy of a question. She says, "Mom, were you alive when the dinosaurs were alive?" Ummm....NO! My goodness, I am not even thirty yet and my kids think I walked with the dinosaurs! That just confirms it....I am NEVER having my 30th birthday! Hmmpff.....

Even Believers have valleys

1 Peter 5:7 (New Living Translation)

⁷ Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.

It's funny to me to think that someone would think that Christians have it all together or their life is always happy and easy. This is not the case. We struggle just like everyone else. The only difference is that we have someone we can lean on and a place to lay all of our struggles. We have a way to find peace. It's an amazing feeling. However, that doesn't mean that our hearts don't hurt over many things.

I have been having an extremely difficult time lately. I have been wallowing in a pit of sadness for a while. I have been angry and hurt over the loss of our church family for a year now. We are still struggling to find a place where we feel we belong. We have had a trickle-down effect from that loss. Many of my friends that I used to have a connection with have moved in different directions. I don't have that friend time that I once had. I don't have any involvement with any "mom" groups/ministries like I used to. I miss it....I crave it.....I am angry that I don't have it. I know that this, in turn, has an effect on my home life. I feel sort of like I am stuck. I am "Mom" all of the time. I don't ever get to just be Jennifer. I don't have time where I get to get away from the house and just enjoy my friendships with other women. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and I love my husband, but I also love myself and find myself craving some time for just me.

I am also coming up on the first anniversary of the death of one of my best friends(view her obituary here). March 22nd. is the day that she died. I am struggling a lot with this upcoming day. I wish desperately that cancer hadn't taken her so soon. I am torn between mourning her death and celebrating her new life and her ended suffering. I want her to be here and happy and watching her daughter grow up. But I also would never ask her to continue to suffer. I miss her a lot.

The other day I was listening to the radio when I heard a song that I really needed to hear. It is the song "Cry Out to Jesus" by Third Day. It was a huge reminder that when life gets like this that I need to just leave it with Him. I need to allow all of my struggles and worries to be heard through prayer. I have been working very hard at just letting Him deal with these issues and solve them in His time. It has been a hard lesson for me. I am still learning how to deal with my "valley" and how to get through it. It's literally one day at a time.